VILORIA, MELINDO WILL BE THE STARS ON ABS-CBN COVERAGE OF ‘FISTS OF GOLD”

By Ronnie NathanielszPhilBoxing.comThu, 04 Apr 2013

WBO/WBA flyweight champion Brian Viloria who defends his belts against Mexican warrior Juan Francisco Estrada and mandatory challenger Milan Melindo, who takes on Indonesia’s dangerous Tommy Seran in a ten-round bout at the Cotai Arena in the luxurious Venetian Resort Hotel in Macau on Saturday, will be the stars on the ABS-CBN television coverage over Channel 2 on Sunday at 10:15 a.m.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who clearly is looking at China’s two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world amateur champion Zou Shiming has done all he can to entice the growing boxing market in China and has hyped Zou as a legendary champion from China even though he is only making his debut in a four round bout as the main event.

However, ABS-CBN vice president for Sports, Peter Musngi, told the Manila Standard that the telecast on the pre-eminent Channel 2 will feature the fights of Melindo and Viloria but that the Zou fight will be included in the afternoon replay over Studio 23 along with the fights of the Penalosa brothers Dodie Boy Jr and Dave who are trained for former two-division world champion Gerry Penalosa who believes they are headed for greatness provided they remain disciplined, work hard and are focused.

Viloria who told us he is already on weight and whose career has truly blossomed after he moved up to flyweight and stopped virtually killing himself trying to make the light flyweight limit is eager to get it on against Estrada and strengthen his monicker as the “Mexicutioner” which was a monicker previously assigned to Manny Pacquiao.

Although Estrada’s manager Juan Hernandez said during the “live” streaming of the press conference by Top Rank “We are here to prove a point. I hope after this fight the world will realize that we have a special fighter in Estrada,” while the challenger remarked “I feel very good, better than when I fought Roman Gonzales,” the WBA light flyweight champion whom he lost to last November on the same card where Viloria won a war with Hernan “Tyson” Marquez.

Estrada said he “had to go down to 108, now I feel better at 112 lbs” and vowed to stop Viloria’s run of success against Mexican fighters.

Gary Gittelsohn, the likable manager of Viloria said that on the day of the fight the world will see that Viloria is one of the best flyweights in history.

Viloria who has been sparring with Shiming at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach in Los Angeles and is in tremendous shape politely said “I beg to differ with what Estrada said,” recalling that some years ago he fought in a parking lot and he was down and people said he was .

However, Viloria said that “after a string of wins against tough Mexican fighters, I thanked God I stuck to the sport. I continued training and believing that I could win another championship.”

Melindo who told us he’s been waiting for two years after rising to the No.1 spot in the WBO ramkings said he plans to put on an impressive performance so WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel won’t hesitate in ensuring he gets a title shot.